I don’t know if I would consider Pierce, Garnett, and Allen over the hill in 08, and I definitely wouldn’t consider their victory over the Lakers an upset. The Celtics had the best record in basketball by a wide margin and an incredibly deep roster. As for Rivers, especially that year there were several times where they seemed to win in spite of him than because of him. Rivers often makes odd rotation decisions and isn’t really the best tactical coach, but he does seem to be able to motivate his teams to play excellent defense (of course, having Kevin Garnett around doesn’t hurt in that regard).